Senior Palestinian Official Complains: Current Israeli Army Deployment Makes It “Impossible” To Attack

Jerusalem – This week, Jerusalem Post Palestinian Affairs correspondent Khaled Abu Toameh, provided a telling and important statement from a senior Palestinian official. Nabil Shaath, one of the founders and most influential leaders of the Palestinian Authority and the Fatah, said to Abu Toameh, on the record, on April 5, that Palestinian Authority security forces have every right to launch an attack against Israel (using their American weapons) but that they can’t because the deployment of IDF in Palestinian areas makes this unworkable. In the words of Mr. Shaath, “The option of an armed intifada under the current circumstances, where Israel fully occupies the West Bank and is besieging the Gaza Strip, is impossible.†For example, the Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo has not been shelled in more than six years from the nearby Palestinian village of Beit Jalla, since the Israeli army has quietly returned its patrols and surveillance of Beit Jalla, to prevent these very attacks.